


And The Songs of Every Poet Past and Forever

by bucky_bunny_teeth (buckybunnyteeth)



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gen, M/M, Modern Royalty, Multi, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-04
Updated: 2013-06-29
Packaged: 2017-12-13 23:10:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/829927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckybunnyteeth/pseuds/bucky_bunny_teeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the White Dragon knew that nothing in the universe was singular, nothing of magic or of man happened only once. The vast Universe was just to large for their not to be repetitions and miracles. The Once and Future King was never meant to live but once, that was known to many, but very few knew that he was never meant to share his destiny alone.</p><p>Aithusa knew that the dwellers of Camelot would get their chance among men once more. And this time, if she helped right, the could bring the happy ending that Kilgharrah had sung of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Moving on is easy. It's staying moved on that's trickier.”  
\- Katerina Stoykova Klemer

xxx

Merlin mourned the loss of his King for three weeks. For three weeks he sat on the beach of the Lake of Avalon and stared out at the Island, the Island out of his reach that kept his king. For three weeks Merlin was selfish.

He was at a loss on how to go on, how could one side of a coin continue on without its other half? How could Merlin's path continue when Arthur's had stopped- maybe not permanently but stopped all the same. He did not know how to continue without Arthurbeside him.

And then one day a fresh-ling Knight stumbled into his sanctuary and bought word that Camelot was under attack.

Without thought Merlin rushed to his old home, feeling as though he had fire under his skin and a dragons anger in his heart. Who would dare try and destroy Arthur's Kingdom, who would have the audacity to attempt to take away what Merlin had strove for along side his King for years on end?

When he reached Camelot the Invaders met their end. In front of Leon and Percival, and any number of fresh-ling and reverent Knights- Merlin unleashed his magic on King Odin's armies, anger controlling his actions was he conjured chains that bound men to breaking point, and lightning to show them exactly who they were facing. Odin Charged for him in the fray and without moving a muscle Merlin turned his legs to stone where he stood. 

The courtyard of the citadel was silent as the Queen descended the steps and Merlin spoke in a tone to the King that made the Knights around him shiver.

"Another breath Odin and it will be the last mistake you ever make in this life and all thatfollow."

Almost all the Knights were surprised when the Queen gathered the apparently Magic servant into her arms.

Odin was banished in a state of fear that would never leave him for the rest of his days, and all of his nights would he haunted by the image of the Warlock who defeated hisarmies.

Gwen begged him to stay in Camelot and despite the pull that bound him to the lake, Merlin agreed. He did not want to risk the chance of Arthur seeing what he had become.

Bitter.

He was awarded a place in the Queen's court, and saw magic return to Camelot and to Albion. People lived without the threat of execution and their lived were the better for it. The Kingdoms prospered, and all who thought to use magic for the wrong reasons were told of the Queen's Wizard, and all he was willing to do to protect his kingdom.

Merlin became the story that all magic families told their children to discourage them  
from turning dark.

'...he defeated the sorceress Morgana le Fey, and he guards the gates of Avalon. With a flick of his wrists whole armies can be frozen in stone and he is charged with keeping the balance or all magic. Never cross the Great Emrys ... and you may live to see all your days..."

He stayed at the queens side for may years, sharing the pressures of ruling together. It was on a warm summers night that Gwen kissed him after too much wine and confessed that she would like to marry him. In the morning when they were sober and blushing, the Lady monarch told him of how she thought to marry Leon because he made her smile and blush, but also wished to be with Merlin because he was calming and knew what it was like to be a servant under richer clothes. He smiled as he told her she should be with Leon, as he wasn't sure he could  
ever make her happy as he knew the knight could.

It was Merlin who held her hand when she gave birth to hers and Leon's son and daughter, as Leon had fainted, which earned him much ribbing from Percy. Twins who would hold their mothers Pendragon name. 

It was hard for both of them, the Queen and the Magician, as the mourned the loss of Arthur, but they became the friends they had been years ago once more and helped to partially repair each others hearts.

As the children grew bigger, Merlin saw Gaius become older. He cried at the mans side, and with the blessing of the Queen he took the beloved old man down to the Lake and sent him on to their care. He prayed Arthur could not see him from his realm. He did not want this king to see him so broken.

Wars came and went, and soon Merlin realised that he was not aging, a fact that Gwen teased him for occasionally as Leon smiled and the ever kindly Percival chuckled. A boy named Galahad arrived, small and so wanting to be a knight. He was an orphan, so Percy took him under his win and trained him. As Merlin watched the boy become a man, with cobalt eyes and a wicked smile that remind everyone of Gwaine, Merlin could not help but think of how Arthur would have found a kindred spirit in Galahad. 

Merlin lived to see Gwen abdicate on her sons eighteen day of birth so he could become King,  
whilst his sister pledged herself to magic.

She became Merlin's first student, they learned together in truth. She formed her own company of High Priestesses, one pledged to holding the balance of the Magical world, to retaining the order between darkness and light. Merlin cried when she named them the Guild of the Lake. He helped the Princess, who had become one of his closest friends, to build a temple in the forest next to the lake, and to lay the wards that would keep them safe for as long as he lived.

The Pendragon's ruled the Kingdom and guided the magic. It was truly the golden age of Albion.

But it could not last forever.

One night the King and his Lady wife were caught in a storm and never seen again, said to have downed along with their company. They left behind their son and heir; Arthur Pendragon the Second.

Gwen stepped up once more, now with grey hair and a lined face, to reign in the child's place. But she was not appointed his guardian, a woman of her age could not look after a boy who was so young. By this time Leon and Percy had already passed on, being sent on just as the others Knights of the Round Table had gone, encased in fire on a lake. The Court appointed that Merlin should be the one to care for the boy, as he was the Strongest Warlock in the known Kingdoms, seemingly immortal, and the closest friend that the last Arthur had ever had.

Merlin had refused, he had yelled and screamed his objections. He could barely utter the boys name without a wince, not to mention as soon as he saw that the boy had little resemblance to his namesake his hopes of Arthur being reborn through him were dashed. Merlin was ashamed to say that he let a sliver of bitterness re-enter his heart on that day.

But when Gwen clutched his hand and looked into his eyes without uttering a word, he could not deny her request. She said that Arthur would have been proud of him. He told her Arthur would have forced Merlin to be the boys guardian long ago. 

So Merlin became the constant companion to the boy of six years, teaching him all he would need to know to survive and a little more. Merlin told him he taught him more than the Council of Camelot knew about so that the Prince would always have the upper hand in any conversation as he would know more than most anyone. He really taught him more so he would not end as his Arthur did.

So he taught the boy of Science and Politics, of Medicine and History, of the Pendragons and Albion, and so many other things. He taught him small amounts of magic as well, enough so he would not die should he ever get lost in the Forests or Camelot. He looked nothing like how his Arthur did. He had inherited his grandfather's curly golden hair, and his mother Green eyes, and there was also something of Gwen about his face. And yet even when he was young, his compassion and his fierce loyalty reminded Merlin of the long gone monarch.

It was around Arthur's tenth birthday that Merlin took him to Lake Avalon and sat him on the  
shore, while he told him all about the man he had been named for. After that it became a yearly pilgrimage for the two of them.

Merlin was Arthur's closest friend and confidant, and secretly the closest thing he had ever had to a father. He shared everything with the Warlock and over time Merlin learned to do the same.

So when Arthur was given the Kingship at the tender age of Eighteen, just as his father had, it was Merlin who crowned him. It was Merlin who took Gwen down to the shores of Avalon and waved back at her as she departed in to the next world. It was Merlin who married Arthur to the love of the young Kings life and guarded their children. It was Merlin who remained with the King until his dying day.

Merlin accompanied all the Pendragons to the waters edge and saw them to Avalon, until the Last Pendragon, a Maid called Marion, departed to the next world long after the Lion Hearted King of the Crusades had departed himself. With all Pendragons gone Merlin left Camelot, but he did not return to the lakes shore, not yet.

Merlin set out across the Kingdoms. He set out to learn all he could for when Arthur returned... he set out to make sure he would not be so broken when he saw his King again.

(x)

For years without rest Merlin travelled the Lands of Albion, attempting to learn all he could and see all that was possible. He met a Druid colony in the ruins of what had been Lots Kingdom, and he stayed with them as they taught him to love the earth and spirit as he had never known before. He stumbled upon a young Warlock in a system of caves, and he taught Merlin how to become invisible without spells, and Merlin gave him a space in his heart. 

And some time, many years after the passing of the Last Pendragon, Merlin found himself at a port city where he departed on a ship to learn all he could from the rest of the World.

He walked all over what would one day be called Europe, meeting Kings and quelling the exploits of Despots who sought to hurt the Innocent. It would seem he would never be rid of the desire to do good by all, just as he had seen many a King Arthur do. But never in the same way as his Arthur.

But he was not always good and innocent of Sin himself. A blonde woman in Normandy and a man in Persia proved this fact. Not even he was free of human desire.

He traveled to what seemed to be the top of the world, a place of harsh ice and snow, and the occasional forest. Here he met a woman of magic, far more ancient than he, who lived in a house that could walk on its own and was surrounded by a fence made of human bones. It was this woman, whom he called Old Mother, that taught him just as Gaius had, and reminded him that only the wielders of magic were evil and not the magic itself. He stayed with her for ten years, leaving only when the itch to move became unbearable. He cried when he had to depart from the woman, and she gave him a book to guard with his life.

He feared, even hundreds of years following their parting, what she would do to him should he ever loose the volume bound in man’s skin.

For years he dallied in the countries of Europe once more, entertaining Kings and watching as tales of his King Arthur came into the world. It would seem that the story of Arthur and the stories of all the four Arthurs that followed had been heaped together. They were muddled and wrong, but they made him laugh so he did not correct them. He may have even contributed to some of the more outlandish tales.

He was done with Europe after a King fooled his trust, breaking something inside him only so recently healed. After this, Merlin walked until he could no longer walk, and he found himself in what was called the Holy land. Kingdoms and countries of wast deserts. He saw the place where the Pharaohs once sat, and he spent a life time learning of the healing magic and skills that dwelt in the countries they once ruled.

He met free riders and Holy warriors, and woman Lords in a string of Islands of the Coast of the eastern Kingdoms. He even fell in a kind of love with a woman who wore Armour, directed an army, and had the most loving brown eyes he had ever witnessed. He held her, just as he had Arthur, when she fell to another Feudal Lord.

After that he made his way east, and high in the mountains that reminded him of the Old Mothers Kingdom, he found an ancient Monastery of Monks who followed the teachings of a man called Buddha. That had apparently been expecting him. He stayed and learned amongst the Monks for life times, rebuilding his soul with their teachings to make it stronger than it ever was before. He stayed until a ripple of magic, stronger than he had felt in years, called to him.

By this time a land had been colonised by a land of Albion, or England as it was now named. A colony across the vast seas, in a Land named America. It was their that the magic was calling from, so Merlin sought it out. It was only when he landed on the shores and found his way to Massachusetts that he realised that the wave he had felt was sent in fear. Witches, woman accused of being of magic, were being burned at the stake by the Puritan colony. He fought against the trials, and tried to rescue the women, and though not all were of Magic he still tried until exhaustion found him. He could not save them all.

As soon as he saw that the Witch trials were over he left America, vowing to not return for at least five hundred years, he did not believe his heart could take the deadly nostalgia. Evidently he missed the drama that would follow not long after, when a group of revolutionary Farmers would defeat the most efficient Army in the world. Merlin laughed so hard he cried the day he heard the news.

It was after leaving the American colonies that Merlin returned to the Lake side for the first time in centuries, sitting down on the shores and gazing out to where his King was kept from him. The Lake had been surrounded by a village, small and quaint, in the time he had been away, and the area around it renamed Wales. He found that the Guild of the Lake lived on in secret, and he was greeted with open arms and scriptures filled with all he had missed. He knew what they said. His king had not returned in his absence. Merlin was sure he would feel that from even from aeons away.

So the Warlock dwelt by the lake for years, and saw a rather Large man by the name of George take the throne of the United Kingdom, Albion's most recent title. He dwelt in the small Village by the lake, learning what he had missed and aging himself so he could blend in.

That was until a Woman took the throne and Merlin heard whispers in his sleep. He traveled deep into the forests of Wales, and high on a hill surrounded by nothing but sprawling forests he met someone he had thought he would never see again.

"Aithusa!"

The dragon had grown large, large and sparse and now holding the Beauty that had been denied her when she was young. Her white scales shimmered in the sun and she seemed happy. She spoke to Merlin in her mind, something stopped her from talking as Kilgharrah had done aeons ago. He voice was soft in his mind, and he held himself close to her for days. It was only after that that she showed him the three small emerald eggs she had been keeping. Apparently female dragons are born with eggs and do not always need Male dragons for fertilisation. Merlin was shocked when she told him that. How could he have lived so long and not learned something of such importance?

And so once more Merlin the Last Dragon lord called forth dragons, watching three small golden and red beasts rise from the eggs and fly instantly to their mother. Aithusa told him of a place, and Island guarded by magic far from all countries and Kingdoms where she had been living. She invited him and when he declined going with her she gave him one last egg she had intended on keeping, telling him that she owed penance to the Once and Future King. Merlin laughed and cried and clutched the emerald egg as he watched the four dragons fly away, never to walk along side the men of Albion again.

Merlin took his charge to heart and made haste to London. It was completely by mistake that he foiled the attempt to use magic to kill the young Queen Victoria and reveal the  
existence of magic once more to the royal family in the same afternoon. He thought that after years of survival he would be executed for once more defending a Monarch. Fate was often cruel like that. But instead he was surprised, and once more was appointed magical adviser to a ruler or  
Albion.

He stayed with Victoria for her entire reign, getting to know her better than he knew himself, comforting her through the loss of her husband and her many, many births.

She reminded him of Gwen, but he never told her such. Gwen had been remembered wrong in the eyes of History, and adulteress who ran away with an already married Lancelot. Merlin laughed when he imagined himself telling the Queen Pendragon such things, she would stutter till the cows came home.

It was through his time in the royal court that Merlin found a safe place for the Dragon egg to dwell, under Buckingham palace, where it would wait until Arthur once more sat upon the throne.

After the passing of his second beloved Queen, Merlin retired to the Lake, intending to never leave. That was until he was called away. He was only called away twice. Once by a rouge magic user in Belfast, and again by a highly informed Winston Churchill who wanted Merlin's help to bring down a dictator ship in what once was Prussia. He was more than happy to oblige the Prime Minister.

But other than those instances Merlin rarely left the Village that kept watch over his King. So their he remained.

Until the day he died.


	2. Chapter 2

“The longer I lived, the longer it would be until I saw him alive again, until I could taste his new lips and run my fingers through his new hair. We could be young and beautiful again . . .”  
―Chelsie Shakespeare, The Pull 

xxx

Aithusa had learned much in her years after the battle at Camlann, she had seen and lived through the battles or man and those of magic. She had waited for the day that Emrys would find her, waited for the day when she could repay the Pendragons for how she had aided the deluded Morgana. And now that day was approaching so fast it left even her and her centuries old mind in a haze.

For unlike Emrys, Aithusa had been privy to the full of Kilgharrah's knowledge of what was to come, even if it was for a short time before he ordered her to side with the Witch, Morgana. She still felt a slight bitterness towards him for making her have a hand in the Once and Future Kings death. But everyday she saw that he was right in is manipulations.

For the white dragon knew that nothing in the universe was singular, nothing of magic or of man happened only once. The vast Universe was just to large for there not to be repetitions and miracles.

The Once and Future King was never meant to live but once, that was known to many, but very few knew that he was never meant to share his destiny alone.

Things were always meant to repeat.

So when on a cold winters night, in a cottage by a lake; Merlin felt a loving warmth envelope him; when he unconditionally broadcast that feeling to all magic beings all around the world – calling them to act in perfect unison- to sing the ancient songs once forgotten – Aithusa knew.

When the warmth of the magic flowing through Merlin from the other realm caused lights in the sky and snow on London town, babies all over the world to go silent in unison and wars to pause, Aithusa knew.

When the most powerful Warlock in the world took his last breath in his first earthly body and returned once more to the energy he was born of, Aithisa knew.

Aithusa knew that the dwellers of Camelot would bet their chance amongst men once more. And this time, if she helped right, she could bring the happy ending that Kilgharrah had sang of.

[x]

It was a shitty winter in London, that much was obvious, the city was plagued with a new strain of the Flu and it had snowed way too much for anyone's liking.

But as Merlin sat in the small coffee house, glaring out at the hustle and bustle of the city, he could not help thinking that he would be even more miserable in Wales, in the lake side city of Ealdor. But then again, Ealdor meant Mum, and Mum meant free hot chocolate and a flu remedy. But Ealdor also meant Will, and Will came with a bag of social criticisms and distortions that Merlin could not deal with right now.

Ever since Merlin had been accepted into Cambridge on a literature scholarship Will had become bitter towards Merlin, not that Will hadn't been accepted into a good Uni as well but ... Will had an unexplained and personal vendetta towards the privileged of the World. He had accused Merlin, his best friend from age seven, of conforming to man.

Wanker.

But Will didn't matter, because Merlin was sitting in a coffee shop when he was supposed to be meeting two of his other best friends (who he was on break with in the flu infested city) and simultaneously trying not to look like a spectre of death. Hopefully everyone was just picking up his disgust at the Pumpkin muffin he had been given for free. 

He didn't care that it was trendy, if he wanted to ingest the colour orange he would eat a sodding actual pumpkin.

So to recap; Merlin was attending a swanking Uni, was served a shit Muffin, and suffering from a flu that made him look more like Death Warmed Up more than he usually did, while he was in an unfamiliar city surrounded by pretentious wankers. Plus He is named Merlin, which he frankly doesn’t mind but others seem to take a personal offence to.

With a sigh Merlin rose to his feat, grabbing his shitty muffin and his half rate tea and left the shop, his seat being taken before he even exited the breath of the table. Merlin personally loathed the influx of popularity of Coffee shops that should be off the beaten track. They had once been his sanctuary, a place where he could behave like a lazy cat to his content. Now he was sneered at for stepping in the door, and all the chocolate Muffins were Gluten Free and full of shit.

With a smile Merlin fed his muffin to one of the dogs tied up outside the coffee house, smiling as he imagined the owner dealing with the consequences. Dogs don't agree with muffins, something him and his mother had found out the hard way.

The streets were packed with people shopping the after Christmas sales, so Merlin found himself walking the kinds of back streets we wouldn't usually take. Because Merlin was too small and pretty, as Gwen often said, to walk the back-streets alone and not get into some kind of debaucherous trouble. He had always argued that he wasn't short, just lanky, but Gwen always just laughed and patted his head.

The wind whipped through the back-streets harder and with a grimace Merlin swerved, rather violently until he stood on a larger more main road, almost tripping over a lumpy rubbish bag in the process. The street was packed with people and Merlin instantly hated himself.

The people seemed to be standing in a half circle behind barricades in front of a rather swanky looking building, Merlin guessed it was some kind of Charity headquarters or a boutique opening, he had been told by the rather gossipy Gwen (and ever cautiously curious Freya) that those kinds of events attracted people willing to die in the cold to get a look at the attending royal Pendragons.

Merlin gathered that they would be the people standing up on the swanky stage in front of the swanky building.

Huh, Swankers. Huh.

They stood tall and regal above the crowd as some rather round woman made a speech at a podium in front of them. 

To the right of the stage stood a woman, possibly the most beautiful woman that Merlin had ever lay eyes on. She was around his age, with stereotypical heroine porcelain skin, dark raven hair, and an air of grace that was inherit to the royals. She was adorned in a sleek green dress and was being protected from the rain by a burly man holding an Umbrella. Merlin was instantly convinced that she was the physical embodiment of all the kick-ass yet feminine women he had ever read about in the Teen Fiction books he still read in secret. After a moment he remembered that she was the Princess Royal; Morgana Pendragon.

To the side of the ridiculously beautiful woman stood an aging yet still strong looking man who Merlin instantly recognised as the King, made mostly of a broad chested man with silvering hair. He was adorned in a rather plain looking suit, with a long red and gold neck-tie of the Official Pendragon colours. His eyes held a steady line to the crowd, and yet Merlin could see a falseness in his smile that made his stomach twist.

And then there was the man who stood on the Kings other side, who could only be The Prince of Wales, Arthur Pendragon, the man who made women mad with his smile and men realise that they may not be as straight as they thought they were. He stood as dapper as ever in a pressed suit in a shade of Black, finished off with a bow tie around his neck. His hair shone a kind of golden in the sunlight and he was constantly smiling at the rowdy women in the crowd.

Merlin could not help thinking that he was a wanker (everyone was a wanker today), despite the fact that his knees may have thought about wobbling at the dapper sight of him.

Scanning the area Merlin searched for a way to escape the hectic area, sipping his tea lazily as he did. Almost every meter of the place was covered in evenly placed guards, dressed in suits as bodyguards always are. Merlin was surprised he hadn’t been escorted from the area considering he was standing apart from the crowd in a clear area.

He was standing alone in a clear area.

Merlin started, choking on his tea as he whipped his head around. How could this be? He was in an area that should be crawling with body guards. The King took to the podium as Merlin looked on shocked. The other guards were standing stock still, gazing up at the stage, and some at the crowd, without movement as though ... frozen.

Merlin turned ready to flee down the alley he had come from, hoping to get away before anyone saw him and he was thrown in Prison for standing near the royal presence. But as he gazed down the dripping alley, freshly washed from the melting snow, he noticed that the rubbish bags he had attempted to trip him up, were not in fact lumpy rubbish bags. They were lumping royal bodyguards.

"Shit."

This was bigger than Merlin, bigger than anyone, but as the panic filled his body it was joined by something else. A warming sensation filled his body, spreading from somewhere near his heart, through his veins where it sparked in his finger tips making his breath stutter in his throat.

"No..." he breath,"It ... it cant be ... I thought it was just me..."

Spinning around Merlin saw the world in a sickly slow motion, the crowds roar at the Kings last words dulling as he tried to see, see without seeing who was doing this.

No one jumped out, no one was moving! but as the Prince moved to the stage stairs (on Merlin's side) to lead the Pendragons from the stage, Merlin felt the sensation again, stronger and more violent. It over took him, and it guided Merlin to the only woman who was stepping fast in the slow-mo world.

Stepping around the barricade, past the guards, and raising the revolver in alignment with Prince Arthur's head.

Without thinking, and with the courage that The Warmth bought Merlin dropped the cooling tea from his hand, running towards the woman before the cup hit the ground. She saw him, her hawk eyes glaring Gold at him, and she smiled as she pulled the trigger...

...to late.

He was already upon her, between her and the prince, his eyes glowing Gold in return. He didn't feel the bullet rip through his chest, nor here the gun as its boom woke the guards from their slumber.

All the young Warlock could see was blackness.

And all he could hear was the all mighty roar of a creature that had haunted him all his life.

(x)

The first thing that Merlin noticed was darkness. An all encompassing darkness, that was completely foreign and endless. He was defiantly dreaming. Or at least he assumed he was, it felt like his mind was being surrounded by a thick sludge, it was making it hard for him to think clearly.

Merlin had not felt this way in sometime, and had only felt similar to this on three occasions; When he and will got sloshed three Christmas' ago, when he got a concussion when he was thirteen when the girl who lived next to him pushed him down her stairs, and when he was eight and he woke from a dream about castles and a huge white dragon.

So, Merlin determined, that he was either sloshed, concussed or dreaming. He didn't much care either way, as long as the feeling went away soon. He felt rather helpless against the blackness without his mind.

Slowly the darkness began to enclose him and fade at the same time, lightening like the sky when the sun rose. Merlin had only watched the sunrise once, holding his mum on the hill at the back of his house, while she told him all about the father he would most likely never meet. It wasn't exactly a happy memory, but if you took away the words and tears that were shared, it was a pretty homey picture. Merlin got the sudden and violent thought, cutting through his jelly like mind, that he had to go back to Wales as soon as possible. Just to hug his mum.

Merlin.

"Merlin..."

mum?

The darkness turned into the kind that all people saw when they closed their eyes, grey and slightly swimming in colours.

"Merlin, Sweetie..."

The voice dropped in and out, frustrating Merlin's slowly crawling mind.

Mum.

"Mum?"

A deep chuckle sounded somewhere far away, and made Merlin's mind stutter in confusion before he became sludge once again.

"No Sweetie, she'll be here soon, Lance has gone to pick her up ..."

Slowly, and Merlin was getting sick or slowly, the colours stopped and he began the herculean effort of opening his eyes.

He must be drugged, if someone was speaking to him like the disembodied voice was, soft and slow, he had to be drugged. And possibly in hospital. Or kidnapped by a softly spoken woman … who seemed to be stoking his hair rather lovingly. It clicked and Merlin felt stupid and happy all at once.

"Gwen ..." he croaked, voice strange to his own ears. He hoped he was smiling, he couldn't feel his face to tell.

Light blinded him temporarily as his eyelid finally parted, and the first thing they settled on was Gwen's face. She had been crying. She was smiling wide and her curly black hair was down around her shoulders. She had been one of his best friends since he got a scholarship to attend a pretty good Secondary School in Wales. She was a scholarship kid too, won it because she got almost 100% on all of her tests. She stuck close to him and he taught her all he could about Wales, feeling like an expert in front of the girl from Hammersmith.

"Shh, Honey you're babbling,"

Merlin chuckled, "I think I've been drugged, Gwen."

The kindly woman shook her head and grinned at him. She was always smiling at him, she had a hundred different smiles, and right now she was showing him her 'I love you you silly tosser' smile. In other words her Merlin smile. Well only when she was in a good mood was it his smile. Almost all of her smiles were exclusively for Lance.

Merlin sighed as awareness of his own body came back to him. He was lying in an itchy bed, had the best pillow that man has ever made, and was in a stark white single room.

And he seemed to be wearing a dress presently.

He also had a needle connected to a bag sticking out of his arm, and at least three machines around him, all beeping at a different tone.

What? I have sensitive ears.

Wait. Gwen said Lance wasn't here. Then who chuckled?

Merlin groaned and his head to the side of the bed Gwen wasn't standing on. Standing tall and straight against the side of the room where the door was, stood a man. He was wearing a familiar suit and tie, had sunglasses sticking out of is pocket and a mop of curly blonde hair sat atop his head.

Merlin groaned again and looked back to Gwen.

"I've done something stupid haven't I?"

Gwen stroked the hair back from his head and nodded.

"Are you going to kill me when I'm not drugged and in a Hospital?"

She nodded again.

"I'll make sure that you never scare me like that again, Merlin Emrys. In fact I'm going to make sure you never go anywhere again. Ever."

Merlin honestly feared for his life in that moment.

"Of course that will be after your Mum has finished with you."

Merlin closed his eyes and made a weeping noise. The well dressed man chuckled again at the sight.

"And who are you?" Merlin asked, slightly annoyed. Only his friends were allowed to laugh at him ... to his face.

The man straightened up, if it were possible, clasping his hands tight in front of him.

"My name is Leon," he spoke in a low authoritative voice, " I am the personal Personal Guard to his Majesty the Prince of Wales."

Merlin made the noise of a dry spit-take and attempted to sit up, only to be presses back down by Gwen's surprisingly strong hands. Well she was a mechanics daughter.

"And where are you going?" she asked in her best headmaster voice.

"I have to get out of here!"

"Why?"

"So I can go find a hole to hide in for the net quadrillion years!"

Gwen rolled her eyes at his antics,

"Why ar-"

"Because their is a bloody royal bodyguard in my Hospital Room!" Merlin whispered violently, waving his arms and unintentionally pulling at his IV, "I do not want nor need to have anything to do with any royal family!"

"Mer-"

"I am happy being a faceless peasant, a dweller on the masses, a wor-"

"You jumped in front of a bloody bullet for the Prince of fucking Wales! You saved Prince Arthur's life! You almost died! ..." she looked close to crying as her voice quietened to a whisper," ... don't you dare move from that bed."

For a long moment Merlin just looked at her, the girl he had known all his adult life and before. He had never seen her look like this before. He was suddenly desperate to see her smile again.

"I wont," he said, getting comfortable again, "...I promise."

The man cleared his throat and Merlin turned to him once more, attempting to project his shame at being caught at expressing his feelings in front of one of the Kings men. Merlin had no trouble expressing his feelings to men who were not agents of the Crown... but he usually had to date them for three months first.

"I have been instructed to guard you, Mr Emrys," Leon informed him, his voice softer and kinder now, "I am to make sure that now harm comes to you, weather it is from a secondary party or you yourself. And I will also inform you that the Royal Family wishes you no harm. They only wish to thank you for your heroics."

Merlin swallowed and nodded to Leon, and he replied his own.

"Well..." Merlin said clapping his hands, "Who wants to get me some Pudding?"

Gwen laughed

(x)

Soon after the encounter with The Princes of Wales personal guard Merlin fell asleep in the middle of telling Gwen his favourite pudding flavours. The young Woman just shook her head and helped Merlin to lay back down before he fell down. Leon could see that she cared for him a great deal, but from what she had told him before Merlin woke Leon gathered that the injured hero in the bed was anything but her boyfriend. Their seemed

to be a man named 'Lance' who fit that role.

Leon could not help but smile as he observed the easy friendship that was present between the two. It was a lot like the one he shared with his own sister. It made him happy to see that Mr Emrys, as he had been told to call him by the King, was well cared for.

He would need someone to care for him once he was discharged, from the wound and from the impact of meeting the Pendragons, which was still impending.

Leon could also see exactly why the young man had done as he had. From his interaction with Gwen, Leon had determined that Merlin Emrys was a very caring person. He had insisted that Gwen sit on his bed to rest her feet, and had covertly taken her shivering hands into his. Even drugged up he could not help worrying for the young woman.

The Bodyguard was bought from his musings by the door opening beside him, revealing a rather flushed Gwen Smith carrying an armful of Pudding Cups. Leon had know it was her and not some assailant instantly. He could hear the distinctive squeak of her sneakers from the other end of the hall.

"Here you go, Mr Knight," Gwen said in a sing-song voice, handing him a cup and spoon,

"Chocolate. Enjoy."

"Please Ms Smith, call me Leon. Even the Pendragons refer to me as such."

"Then you must call me Gwen," she replied as she arranged the cups on Mr Emrys' side table, causing him to stir as she sat in the world most uncomfortable chair, "Ms Smith is my spinster Aunt, and Guinevere is just too long. Even I don't use it."

Leon chuckled once more. He could feel himself growing fond of these people.

They both watched as Merlin once again stirred from his drug addled slumber into the world of the living. Gwen sat poised on the edge of her seat, ready to run for a nurse should Merlin be in any pain. Leon was not ashamed to admit he was in a similar state, and he was sure he could reach the nurses quicker than her. The curse of long legs.

But Merlin woke without pain, face adorned with a goof grin as he caught sight of the pudding cups beside him. Before he could reach for one Gwen opened a vanilla one, placed a spoon in the mix and was pressing it into his hands. Merlin blew her a raspberry and Gwen just chuckled as the young man could not keep from giggling at the noise he had made.

He was like a cross between a three year old and a drunk.

Before Leon could chuckle at his own joke he heard the distinctive sound of Italian leather on vinyl from outside the room. It was a sound he became accustomed to years ago, just as he had the smell of Channel no.5 and helping royal ladies stumble out secret exits in too high heels.

"You will have to excuse me Ms Smith, Mr Emrys," Leon interrupted, placing his unopened pudding on the sill of the blinded window.

They moved to question him but he was already moving out the door and into the hallway, closing the door on their inquiries. Literally.

In the hall Leon was met with the approaching figure of the Princess Royal, in a foul mood and a change or clothes by the looks of things, followed closely by the Prince of Wales, who was glaring at the back of her head so hard Leon was surprised it hadn't exploded already.

Sensing that the pair were about to storm into Mr Emrys' room as they often did in the middle of a disagreement, loudly and full of emotion fire, Leon moved up the hall towards them and blocked their path.

The Two came to a halt in front of him and glared up at him as though he was one or the foul reporters that followed them like corpse flies. Morgana spoke firsts, as was often the case with the royal siblings.

"Leon, get out of my way," She demanded in the voice she only used to those she was close to, the voice that could make a criminal blush or cry depending on her mood, " I must see this 'Merlin' who saved this trolls life."

"I am sorry My-"

"Who are you calling a Troll?!" Arthur countered crossing his arms over the suit had had yet to change from, "If anyone is a troll dear sister it is yo-"

"I have no time for your inane insults right now, Arthur!" the princess snapped at her brother, "I need to see this boy now, I have waited long enough to-"

"I am the one whose life he saved, do you see me barging through hospital corridors to burst into his hospital roo-"

"Yes well, we can't all be as perfect as you, can we Your Highness the Prince of Pra-" 

Leon interrupted the only way he knew how. With his words.

"Your Highnesses!" he said over the din they were making, causing them to give him their attention and giving him to lower his voice to his preferred softer tone, " Mr Emrys is still technically in a critical condition and only woke from being under sedation a few hours ago. Since then he was hardly had a firm grip on his consciousness. He is being treated with Morphine for the pain and is not quite in control of himself. I would not recommend you enter his room at this time."

That was really all he could to. Recommend and never command, no matter how liberal they were with him, Leon always had to separate himself from them. He was not, after all, one of them.

"But you have been in there, " Morgana countered rather weakly, "And so has a woman, what-"

"I have not been questioning Mr Emrys, My Lady. I have been guarding him so he can rest. Ms Smith has been doing much the same whilst she comforts him," Leon interrupted, " The Bullet did only miss his heart by mere centimetres. He is lucky to be alive and in a great deal of pain."

Leon was sure he did not imagine the Prince's shudder and guilty look. He would think  
that he should be the one who took the bullet, similar thoughts to the ones Leon had  
been thinking all day.

"Come, Morgana, lets go. We do not want to make his condition worse."

Morgana seemed to accept defeat in her usual way, without any visible emotion, when-

-Gwen burst out of the room, cupping a pot plant in her hand (the one from Merlin's  
bedside), running into the nearby women's loo, before a flush sounded through the now  
silent hallway.

Leon was about to speak once more, when Gwen emerged still holding the pot plant and emitting small startled noise when she saw who Leon had left the room to see. Her eyes were ridiculously large, and Leon noticed a smear of dirt on her check as she did an awkward curtsy to the Pendragon siblings.

"I-I'm so sorry-I-"

"May I introduce Ms Guinevere Smith," Leon interrupted (he was doing a lot of that today) to spare the poor woman the embarrassment of stuttering in front of Royalty, "Friend of Mr Emrys. She will be caring for him once he is discharged. Ms Smith, may I introduce the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal"

"How do you d-do," Gwen said with a pleasant yet slightly sickly smile.

Morgana broke form the trance the mad pot plant dash had created first, and smiled at the other woman.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Ms Smith, any friend of the man who saved my brother is a friend to me."

Morgana always did have a way with words.

Blushing, she insisted they call her Gwen, "-Everyone else dose. Not! not that you're just like everyone else! of course not. I-"

"Gwen," Morgana tried out,"It is a very pretty name, don't you agree Arthur?"

Gwens blush intensified, but before the Prince could make it worse by speaking a call came from the room they were standing outside of.

"Gwen? Gwen, is it dead? Did you kill it? I can come help you-"

Gwen changed in an instant at Merlin's call, straightening her back and looking eerily like a ticked off lioness as she stormed back into the room.

"Merlin Emrys if you dare leave that bed I will shoot you myself and you can be damn sure I will not be missing any vital organs. Do you hear me-"

"Spare me!"

Leon grinned and the Royal siblings gazed at him with bemused expressions. The Bodyguards cleared his throat and wiped his face of expression once more.

"As I said before, Mr Emrys in both in good hands, and not completely aware of his actions at the present moment."

Morgana had obviously gotten her spirits back and was planning on seeing the patient, if her expression counted for anything. Leon internally groaned as she swept passed him and into the room. Arthur hesitated, a grim and hesitant look lingering in his eyes, prompting Leon to lay a hand on his shoulder. He had known the slightly younger Prince for almost all of the others life, they had grown up beside each other as though they were brothers, and the feeling of comradeship had yet to leave Leon, and he could tell it still held a place with Arthur as well.

The youngest Pendragon nodded and Leon guided him in to the room where the man who saved his life was laying in a Hospital bed in a condition that was going to get worse before it got better.

Morgana was standing in the dimly lit room, at the end of the drugged man's bed, her face a different shade of pale to unusual and her lips bitten considerably as she gazed at him. Gwen sat at her visual once more, and her sharp eyes took in all that was happening at the room. She once again looked ready to protect Merlin at the drop of a hat.

Leon saw the look on the Princess Royals face and his heart broke slightly at the sight it presented. He and Morgana were the same age, and with his father being the head of security for many years he had had many interactions with the beautiful woman over the years. He liked to call he one of his best friends, and when all doors were closed and all the guests were gone, when she had sleepy and she allowed him to see her weak as he helped her to her room; she called him the same.

In any case he knew her well, and Morgana was the kind of person who suffered when others did. She possessed so much empathy that when she and Leon were children and still allowed to be alone with each other in the same room, she would hide behind him when pictures of the children suffering in Africa and other places came on the Telly. It was her inherited empathy that Leon suspected drove her to start all the charities she managed, she could not bear to watch idle as others suffered when she had the means of stopping said suffering.

And right now, as she gazed down at the man who had saved her brothers life hours before, Morgana looked as though she was the one who had been shot through the chest.

clearing he thought she spoke to the man in the bed who was stuffing pudding into his mouth despite the presence of royalty, "Mr Emrys, I hope we are not disturbing you too much. I am Princess Morgana of the Pendragon family and-"

"Your hands are shaking," Merlin interrupted her, his eyes focused on the woman’s hands where they sat on the rail at the end of the bed.

Morgana was stunned into a kind of silence she experienced very infrequently. It was not often that someone interrupted.

Before she could speak again Merlin was putting down his pudding and reaching his right hand out too the stunning woman, palm up and an unreadable expression on his face. Gwen looked ready to explode from her jitters, and Arthur stood at the other end of the emotional spectrum, standing smooth and passive with his arms crossed near the door.

Near an escape. Leon was closer to feeling as Gwen did, he was just better at hiding it than she was.

Slowly and with inquisitive (yet still sad eyes) Morgana stepped to the side of the injured man's bed and placed both her hands in his hand, watching as he softly curled his fingers around hers.

"You don't need to be afraid any more," he spoke with a comforting smile on his face, "Gwen has flushed the spider. She is the best at flushing spiders."

Morgana let out a surprised laugh while Gwen looked ready to melt into the floor from mortification. Arthur shifted and Leon could swear she saw him smirk fro a second.

"I hope someone told you you looked Kick-ass," Merlin continued.

"Excuse me?"

"In the dress you had on, you looked like the physical embodiment of every literary Heroine I've ever pictured in my mind," Merlin said, his words obviously fooled by morphine, "Kick-ass and able to tear a man apart with your words before you even need think of raising a hand."

Morgana grinned down at him and Merlin grinned back. Moving slowly he unlaced their hands and, with no small amount of effort, placed a pudding cup and spoon in the Princess' hands.

"There, that'll keep you smiling."

Leon smiled when Morgana let out one of the most honest laughs he had ever heard her make.

"Mr Emrys," Morgana spoke in her sweet voice that she reserved for those closest to her,

"You my kind sir, are as high as a kite."

Merlin laughed, even though Leon was pretty sure he had no idea what had been spoken to him.

"I want to thank you, Mr Emrys," she spoke softly, "You made an amazing sacrifice for my brother, lesser men would have run to save their own skins. You must possess a Lions heart."

Merlin chuckled.

"Gwen keeps telling that what I did was stupid, and now a princess is telling me I am brave. I don't know who to believe."

"You should believe the woman who is going to sacrifice her time to helping you heal, Emrys," Gwen said lowly.

Merlin smiled at her, "Of course I believe you the most, that goes without saying."

Leon smirked to himself when he saw the princess tentatively start to eat the pudding she had been given. Such ordinary things such as eating with a plastic spoon were foreign to the royals, and it was quite amusing to watch them discover how to accomplish such mundane tasks.

Gwen just rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, "You were brave Merlin. I am just worried about the cost of it all to you. Physically and mentally, as well as financially."

"The Crown will reimburse you both for your troubles of course," Morgana promised.

"No!" Gwen gasped, jumping to her feet, " I-I mean, I know that Merlin deserves some kind of reward, but I don't. I-I don't want to to be thought I am here to-to, get rich!"

Leon was quick to reassure the woman he had grown found of from his short time in the injured heroes room, "Ms Smith you are going to be giving up a massive amount of study time to look after Mr Emrys, the least the Crown could do is make the burden easier on you."

Gwen looked to be ready to argue some more when the man in the bed beside her started to cough and grasp at his bandaged where the bullet had shredded his body.

Everyone froze in fear when they heard horrible crunching sounds..

...and when Merlin's hand came away covered in blood.

Gwen let out a gasp and Morgana looked ready to faint. Leon went into action, striding to the bed, grabbing the shaking man by his shoulders and guiding him down to the bed. He had not anticipated that the smaller man would begin to seize, his body shaking violently and arching of the bed.

Leon was so concerned with what was happening with Merlin, attempting to hold the man down before he hurt himself, that he did not see the previously silent and unmoving Arthur run into the hall. He did not hear his yelling at the top of his lungs for someone, anyone, to help them, now! Nor did he see the young prince guide the distressed Gwen from the room with Morgana on his heels, nor hear the way he threatened the doctors with the full wrath of the Crown if they let Merlin die. If Leon had been watching or listening he would heard how much the boys voice sounded like his fathers, and how his eyes swan with so much fear it would have drowned the strongest of people.

The Doctors swept into the room, white coats flapping, and a nurse in teddy bear scrubs took his place holding down Merlin. Leon felt frozen when he was detached from the shaking man, and despite his mind screaming at him to move, to let the doctors and nurses have their space, it was not Leon's feet that moved him from the room. 

It was Arthur.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this is good. Sorry if there are any huge spelling errors, I have read over it three times and am too exhausted to read it again. 
> 
> Enjoy!

**Author's Note:**

> The title of the work comes from; Rabindranath Tagore, Unending Love.
> 
> And yes, yes I did do what you're thinking.


End file.
